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Monday, December 13, 2010

I dug out some homespun fabric a couple of weeks ago and got this idea to cut ribbons of homespun and pleat it. I just cut it into long strips and used my thumbs to flip the fabric under as I stitched down the center. Then I pulled some of the threads off of the unfinished edges to give it a lightly fringed edge.

My downstairs Christmas tree. This little Alpine tree is a favorite of mine. I wired eucalyptus to the branches and have been playing around with different ideas for decorating it this year.

These burlap mini stockings are pinned to a jute clothesline with mini clothespins. I saw a cranberry garland at Donna's house over at Funky Junk Interiors and I am pretty sure I am going to have to add one of those to the tree this week. Wonder if I could talk the kids into stringing those for me?

I got so excited about the pleated ribbon that I had to make some table runners with pleated ribbons too.

Then I tried pleating the burlap. Love it! You have to watch out how much of the thread you pull out for the fringe. It will keep going and going until you don't have any burlap left if you aren't careful! This runner ended up fitting on the bench in the entry way. It was part of our clean up the clutter project before our cookie party. Convincing the kids to keep it picked up is another story, but we tried and it did look good for a day anyway.

A pretty osnaburg runner with a long ruffle topped with pleated homespun.

If you want to make a cute burlap mini-stocking garland here is how I did it.

Draw a stocking shape on piece of cardboard and cut it out. I had to use a sharpie to trace it onto the burlap because my fabric marker didn't show up. I drew 3-4 out at a time and pinned two pieces of burlap together so they wouldn't slide when sewing. The white line you see is where I stitched 1/4" inside the the sharpie marking. Cut them out on the line after stitching.

Turn them right side out and turn the top edge under, press well with steam. Glue the pleated ribbon to the top with craft glue or fabric glue, the glue will soak through the burlap and hold down the turned under edge too. Embellish with buttons or a bundle of twigs tied with jute twine. Clip them to the clothesline with mini clothespins. I tied a loop at each end of the clothesline to hang it.